The battle traveled further and further away as the defenders of Fort Montclam chased after the enemy. Judging by how the sounds were coming from several directions, I figured Baron Hugo’s men were thoroughly routed and were running for their lives in whichever direction each deemed the safest. The ground on which I stood became eerily quiet. It was a gruesome sight, to say the least, the freshly slain headless bodies of the chevaliers and Sieur Guido mixed with the corpses from the previous battles half-buried in the mud. Trying to avoid looking at the remains of those poor souls, I stood there, fidgeting, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Ehem.”

I jumped, startled, but calmed down quickly, seeing it was Sieur Henry. He was still there, by my side, on his horseback. Guido’s squire was nowhere to be seen, and I assumed the guy had run off when the Comte’s men charged past. Hang on. Wait a second…

“Halt!” I shouted, fumbling with my handaxe. At first, I tried pointing it at him, but then I thought ‘No, but this is an axe,’ and lifted it ready to swing down, but it didn’t feel quite right because he was on his horse. To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. Anyway, I waved it in his general direction.

“Sieur Henry, I am taking you as my prisoner!”

“That’s the spirit, my lad!”

He dismounted and took off his helmet. Standing by my side, Henry stretched, groaning, and stared into the distance, listening to the fading sounds of men being killed.

“What a magnificent way to break a siege.”

He commented and then fell silent, looking tired and troubled. I assessed my situation and concluded there was no way I could possibly subdue this knight by force. I put my axe away.

“Sieur, you look troubled.”

“Indeed, I am.” He sighed and continued. “I am questioning whether my allegiance was decided rather in haste.”

I kept my mouth shut. I feared further prying into the matter would bring out a lengthy rant weighing the pros and cons of both Princes and then evolve into a lecture about the legality and the justification of each side’s claim on the throne and such. That was how noble minds worked, usually.

“That blade…”

I froze. With his hands on the waist, Sieur Henry was staring into the distance where Anna had ridden off to.

“Sieur?”

Henry gave me a quick, shy smile.

“As much as I remain humble, I do indeed know quite well about swords. Very well, indeed.” He faced me, but his eyes were darting in the air, re-seeing what he had seen. “That blade!” Then he came back to reality and stared me down.

“What is it, my lad?”

“Sieur, I am just a lowly servant.” I bowed my head, avoiding his questioning eyes. “I would not know.”

“Hmm…”

I felt his gaze shifting away from me and raised my head back.

“I am most certain,” Henry was saying, staring again into the distance. The triumphant men were returning. “I am certain I read about it somewhere a long time ago.”

Now that piqued my interest. Some book somewhere, recent enough for this forty-something-year-old Sieur Henry to had read it at some point in his life, mentioned Firis’ sparkling blade.

“It made me feel…” Henry was looking for the right words. “The sight of it made me wonder. Were I on the wrong side?”

Then he turned his whole body to face me.

“My lad. What do they call you?”

“René of the Tavern, Sieur.”

“Good, René. Of the Tavern. The voice of La Rose,” he patted my shoulders. “I surrender myself to Her Ladyship. Not the Comte, not the Seigneur Montclam. Her and her only.”

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. It was not even minutes ago that I had declared him my prisoner. Sieur Henry simply ignored it and declared himself Anna’s prisoner. So unfair.

We waited for the men to return. Sieur Henry had asked my help, and we huffed and puffed carrying and laying the dead chevaliers and Guido, and their respective body parts, in a somewhat more presentable arrangement. I politely waited in silence for him to finish his prayer.

“Sieur, were you good friends with the knights?”

“I would not say so, I am afraid.” He shook his head. “I had arrived only two days ago. Met the late Sieur and the chevaliers only then for the first time.”

I was puzzled.

“The Sieur has not come with the Baron’s army?”

“No, my lad. I have come from the west.”

According to Sieur Henry, he had been requested by an acquaintance, who had unexpectedly fallen ill, to aide Baron Hugo on the acquaintance’s behalf. Being a good man he was, Henry had traveled with his entourage from the west and joined the Baron’s siege camp only two days ago.

I looked around. There were only Sieur Henry, the knight, and humble me in the vicinity.

“Your men…”

“Yes, I am indeed quite worried. I fear the worst-”

We were interrupted by a loud cheer. Some hundred yards away from us, two groups of the Comte’s men, returning from different directions, had come to join and merge. They cheered again as another group, led by the Comte himself, came from an off-angle. Together they were heading this way, towards the Fort, but there was no sight of my Anna.

“I do not see Her Ladyship,” Henry spoke first, craning his neck.

We waited some more for the men to come near.

“Have you seen my Lady Anna?” I asked the men, but nobody had a clue.

Comte d’Armas trotted forward and stopped in front of us.

“I see the Sieur has not run,” the Comte noted, eying Henry.

“My Lord Comte, I have surrendered myself to Her Ladyship.” The knight bowed.

“A wise decision,” the Comte gestured towards the dead knights laid on the ground. “I presume Her Ladyship would receive a good amount of ransom for your release.”

“I do not seek my release, My Lord.” Sieur Henry bowed again. The Comte raised his eyebrows.

“Explain yourself, if you please.”

“I have witnessed, with my own eyes, Baron Hugo breaking the Codes of noble hommes. Having seen such, any knight of honor would question the legitimacy of His Royal Highness Prince Charles’ claim to the throne. No rightful king should surround himself with such degenerates as Baron Hugo.”

The Comte laughed delighted.

“A noble cause! The good Sieur knight is truly a man of honor.” Then the smile on the old man’s face was replaced with sorrow. “But mind you, men like Hugo are drawn to the Archbishop. Not to His Royal Highness. I assure you the young Prince is innocent.”

“I will keep that in my mind, My Lord.” Henry bowed again.

It was already evening, and the sun setting low cast long shadows on the muddy field. Sieur Henry and I had been waiting, still out in the open. The Comte and his men had gone back into the Fort in preparation for a celebratory dinner, mostly consisted of the spoils from the Baron Hugo’s siege camp.

We did not talk much as the Sieur was rather depressed for having lost his men who had traveled with him to their deaths. I had nothing much to do, so I kept wiping the mud off of Anna’s sheath that I had retrieved. With the help of Henry, I had managed to pull Anna’s shortsword out of Guido’s helmeted skull. I cleaned it as best as I could and hung it by waist next to my handaxe.

Sieur Henry and I stood side by side in silence and stared into the barely visible horizon. It was getting quite chilly, and I shuffled from side to side, occasionally jumping up and down, to keep myself warm.

“Ah!” Henry uttered.

I saw it, too. The remaining ray of the red sun reflected off something in the dark distance. Something long, like a sword; it was angled sideways towards the ground, and its motion indicated Anna was galloping towards us.

“Anna!” I shouted then remembered Henry was there. “Milady!”

Soon she was close enough for us to see her in full. There was something round hanging by Lilly’s neck, and the longsword’s blade was glistening red and orange. Dozens of seconds later, Anna came to a stop before me. She was shivering, and her mouth clattered from the cold evening air.

“Where have you been?!” I yelled in frustration. Instead of answering, she unhooked the round object that hung by Lilly’s neck and tossed it to me. I caught it without thinking but was horrified to discover it was the severed head of Guido’s squire. Sieur Henry seemed to be startled, too.

“What’s the meaning of this?” I asked flabbergasted. “You went looking for him?”

Anna nodded with a satisfied expression.

“But why? He was just… Why go out of your way for a mere-”

Anna shook her head, scowling. She pointed at the head.

‘He… I saw him… At you,’ Anna was trying to find the right word, which was a challenging thing to do when her entire dictionary was composed of hand-signs. She tried a few more times, but I, once in a long time, failed to understand her.

“You saw him do what?”

Anna made the signs.

“He. Me.” I read her words aloud, trying to understand her.

‘He. You.’ Then she pointed at her face and…

“Sneer!” Sieur Henry butted in. “Sneer. I think that is the word Her Ladyship is trying to say.”

Anna nodded vigorously and gave a thumbs up to Sieur Henry.

“My Lady,” Henry was baffled. “You went to look for him because he sneered at your René?”

Anna nodded again and made a series of hand gestures, which led to Sieur Henry turning to face me expectantly. I sighed and shrugged.

“She felt offended.”

“How kind! The Lady cares for her servant.” Henry seemed to be impressed.

‘What is he doing here?’ Anna asked me, but I did not answer.

I took the squire’s head to where Guido lay assembled, and carefully put the head down next to Guido’s. This poor sod had unwittingly looked down upon the herald of Firis. Rest in peace and regrets.

I turned around and faced Anna. She had carelessly dropped her divine sword on the mud, probably expecting me to pick it up and take care of it. I sighed and picked it up and slid the long blade into the equally long scabbard. Anna sat on Lilly, hunched forward now and hugging herself, shivering and teeth clattering from the chilly air. A fragile monster.

**sorry but I am forced to break chapters down into smaller chunks as the editor does not permit more than 15k characters per upload